How To Upgrade To Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” (Gnome, KDE and Manual Steps)

If you've enjoyed this blog, please consider picking up a copy of my Ubuntu book, Instant Ubuntu. Thanks for visiting!

I wanted to outline instructions on how to upgrade from Ubuntu 7.04 to Ubuntu 7.10. The upgrade steps try to be very user friendly and can be done without any manual “command line trickery”. Upgrading using these methods are only supported for machines currently running Ubuntu 7.04.

Preparing for the Upgrade – Gnome Desktop

Before you attempt to upgrade from 7.04 to 7.10 you need to make sure that your current installation is completely up to date. This will help avoid conflicts or missed packages during the upgrade process.

Navigate to “System > Admin > Update Manager”. Click the “Check” box. If there are any updates available at this point first install them before attempting the complete upgrade.

Upgrading 7.04 to 7.10 – Gnome Desktop

If no updates are available (or if you’ve finished installing anything remaining) again select the “Check” box. You should now be presented with a message “New distribution release ‘7.10’ in available“. To the right of this box select the “Upgrade” button and follow the few prompts. Your machine will now be updates via the Ubuntu repositories.

Preparing for the Upgrade – KDE Desktop

On the KDE (Kubuntu) Desktop you’ll also need to make sure that your machine is fully up to date pending the complete upgrade. To do this navigate to “KMenu > System > Adept Manager (Manage Packages).” From this application select “Adept > Manage Repositories”, enable “Recommended Updates” and then close and reload the Adept Manager.

When the Adept Manager reloads select “Full Upgrade” and “Apply Changes”. Allow all Recommended Updates to be installed and close the Adept Manager.

Upgrading 7.04 to 7.10 – KDE Desktop

If your system is completely up to date navigate to “KMenu > System > Adept Manager (Manage Packages)” and the upgrade wizard will be presented to you. Simply follow the prompts and your machine will be updates from the Ubuntu repositories.

Upgrading Using The Alternate CD

If you’ve downloaded the Ubuntu Alternate (text based) installer CD you can also upgrade your machine using the CD. As is traditional with Debian / Ubuntu upgrade mechanisms you do not need to reboot your machine to initiate the upgrader. Please make sure your machine is already upgraded using the above steps before attempting this method.

Thanks for the post! I have however a little question: is this upgrading going to keep my current setup or install everything freshly, meaning I will having to reinstall codecs, and reset everything up again? Thanks, Nathan.

Hmm…the commands for Kubuntu don’t seem to apply universally. When I follow the above directions, and enter “Manage Repositories,” all I see is a list similar to my /etc/apt/sources.list. I see no option to “enable ‘Recommended Updates.'”

lsb_release -d gives “Ubuntu 7.04″

Adept Manager 2.1

In my /etc/apt/sources.list, I have main, restricted, universe and multiverse enabled for feisty, feisty-updates, feisty-backports, and feisty-security. After the updates, I see the window pop up where it’s downloading the release list, but am never presented with an opportunity to upgrade. No relevant threads at ubuntu forums…ideas?

I think I am good with Gutsy Gibbon now on my AMD-64 box. I did seem to successfully complete a dist-upgrade: hard to tell how since I was asleep part of the time and had to okay some reconfiguration when I woke up.

I did have to delete .openoffice.org2 to get Java (the Sun version) working and also do a sudo apt-get install python-beagle to enable some beagle functionality in the deskbar. Aside from things seeming a little more responsive, everything else seems to be working as they did before the upgrade.

I downloaded the iso with a torrent thinking I could burn a CD so that if the upgrade went badly, I would have a CD to start the install from scratch. I thought I could use the CD as the repository so that it would install packages from CD but it seems to be downloading from the web. What did I do wrong?

It doesn’t work for me. I made sure that my system is current, ran the Update Manager and basically nothing happened. I received the following message window( and I did the “upgrade” twice — several hours between the upgrades).

Welcome to Ubuntu 7.10 ‘Gutsy Gibbon’ ————————————

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 7.10 ‘Gutsy Gibbon’.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent applications installed by default, and almost any other software you can imagine available through the network.

We hope you enjoy Ubuntu.

Feedback and Helping ——————–

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu or #ubuntu-bugs IRC channels on Freenode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

I had to download 3 diff versions, due to the large number and flavour of Ubuntu boxes I run. When I put the AMD64 disk in, it did not fire up the upgrade, so I tried the alt method of typing ‘gksudo “sh /media/cdrom/cdromupgrade”‘ in a term and it bawked at me. I looked at the disk and there is NOTHING called “cdromupgrade”. NOW what? Thanks

Hey,I’m trying to update to 7.10.However i always get and error,(im german) but it says something about unsolvable error and cant find the packages to install -_- i have it on cd and I dont know whats going on.Also I always get this: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/dapper/Release: Unable to find expected entry deb/binary-i386/Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?) When I try to upgrade online,doesnt matter what server i choose,i always get that message

Actually my problem could be called “The Black Screen of Death” I start my machine and select Ubuntu; the start-up procedure begins, and then my monitor switches to the sleep mode. When I turn on the monitor, there is the ‘no signal’ message…

Any ideas as to what went wrong? I will try to re-load the OS from a DVD and see if a fresh start may sort things out…

I upgraded to 7.10 recently and it didnt go really well. In fact it crashed in the middle of it, so now I have the 7.10 with some junk packages from 7.04. It messed my interface. I cant make compiz work :/ .

All well and good if you have a broadband connection – anyone can follow the simple instructions for a Network Upgrade. If you don’t have broadband or have a mchine that is not connected to the internet you’re supposed to follow this:

“Use this method if the system being upgraded is not connected to the Internet.

Download and burn the alternate installation CD.

Insert it into your CD-ROM drive.

A dialog will be displayed offering you the opportunity to upgrade using that CD.

Follow the on-screen instructions.”

How good is that? Download if you’re not connected to the internet?

Plenty of Install CDs available for free or a noiminal fee but these will replace rather than upgrade your current installation. I haven’t been able to find a single source for the so-called “Alternate”. Can anyone tell me where I can buy one from? Thanks